Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic has condemned the United States of
America over its “vengeful” attitude towards the Lockerbie bomber.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien also attacked the country’s use of the death penalty and claimed some states operate a “virtual conveyor belt” of executions.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, left, following his release from prison in 2009.

He suggested that the US should look at the faults in its own justice system rather than criticising Scotland over the compassionate release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

This time last year the Libyan was allowed out of Greenock Prison, where he was serving a life sentence for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which led to the loss of 270 lives.

He was freed by the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, after doctors said he was likely to die of prostate cancer within three months.

The decision was condemned by relatives of the terrorist atrocity and by American politicians, and their anger has increased still further since al-Megrahi is still alive and members of the Scottish executive have refused to attend a Senate hearing in Washington DC on the case.

Cardinal O’Brien, the outspoken Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, claimed the dispute boiled down to a “clash of cultures” between the two countries.

“In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a ‘culture of compassion’.

“On the other hand, there still exists in very many parts of the USA, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice, which can only be described as a ‘culture of vengeance’.”

He agreed that the Lockerbie bombing, in December 1988, was “an act of unbelievable horror and gratuitous barbarity” and that the bereaved would want to seek “justice even vengeance”.

But the Cardinal said: “It is in these moments of grief and despair that we must show the world that the standards of the murderer and his disdain for human life are not our standards. They may plunge to the depths of human conduct but we will not follow them.”

Writing in Scotland on Sunday, he said the Bible teaches that “revenge is not a path we should take”.

Cardinal O’Brien went on to point out that 1,221 people have been executed in the US since 1976, putting “the world’s leading democracy” in the “invidious company” of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and China.

“These are not countries known for placing human rights on a pedestal.”

He said the figures showed that the death penalty does not have a deterrent effect on society, and claimed that the state of Ohio now takes the lives of so many prisoners that its “execution team” has to be given time off after each one to recuperate.

“The fact that a virtual conveyor belt of killing operates among them does not seem to have persuaded Ohio’s legislators that their approach to justice is demonstrably and completely ineffective.”

Cardinal O’Brien concluded: “Perhaps the consciences of some Americans, especially members of the US Senate, should be stirred by the ways in which ‘justice’ is administered in so many of their own States. Perhaps it is time for them to “cast out the beam from their own eye before seeking the mote in their brothers.” Perhaps they should direct their gaze inwards, rather than scrutinising the working of the Scottish justice system.

“I believe that only God can forgive and show ultimate compassion to those who commit terrible crimes and I would rather live in a country where justice is tempered by mercy than exist in one where vengeance and retribution are the norm.”

When al-Megrahi was freed last year, many religious groups including the Church of Scotland as well as the Roman Catholic Church praised the SNP-led Scottish Executive for choosing mercy rather than punishment.